A Visit to a Local Church

4/5/2009
On Sunday, we visited a church, Catholic/Polish. It was just a few steps up from our apartment. As we approached the church, there were women out on the streets selling bunches of palms. However, they were not palms. They were flowers, stems from willows, twigs. The church was beautiful and the entire service was in English. We stood up and down, some kneeled, recited verses, prayers. It was a lovely service, and we learned you can talk to God wherever you are.

After the service, we made our way through the city. We had lunch at our new favorite French restaurant while making plans to meet up with Natalia in the square.

We roamed through one of the local street markets, as yesterday. And visited some of the most extravagant churches we have ever visited. One was designed by this architect many years before—St. Andrews. It’s an icon of the city and stands next to the SDA, State Department of Adoption.

There was a young man preparing to sing at St. Michael’s Church, and he approached us to give us some suggestions about places to visit. He was very kind and we realized that he was just trying to be brave and practice his English.

We finally met up with Natalia to get Jordan’s coat back and discuss next week’s plans. We met her daughter, Kate, also. Then, we enjoyed our final Ukrainian dinner and sat in the main square of the city, Maydan. It was a great opportunity to do some people watching and learn about the typical night life of the “young people” in Kiev. We had a fun time just sitting on the steps of the square and watching the people.

We returned to apartment and packed for the trip home. I miss the kids terribly.